Zibi: Donors are moonshot pact’s architect
The leader of Rise Mzansi said Democratic Alliance leader John Steenhuisen is not credible or capable of being the next president
Rise Mzansi leader Songezo Zibi has given the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’S) John Steenhuisen a vote of no confidence as a presidential candidate in next month’s general elections.
In an interview with the Mail & Guardian this week, Zibi — who has aspirations of becoming a kingmaker — said Steenhuisen was not “capable” of leading the country.
“We are going to make that decision when we get there, but it certainly will not be John Steenhuisen, I can assure you,” said Zibi, who is against a Steenhuisen presidency in the event that the 29 May elections don’t yield a clear winner and parties have to negotiate who gets the post.
The two leaders have become political rivals during this campaign season. Steenhuisen, who leads the country’s largest opposition party, has criticised Zibi for campaigning in the DA’S backyard of the Western Cape, accusing Rise Mzansi and other parties of wanting to loot the province’s coffers.
This week Zibi said his party was aiming for 6% to 7% of this year’s national vote. Should it achieve this goal, Rise Mzansi would be part of a small cohort in the opposition that could decide the fate of the country should the ANC fail to win by a clear majority.
“When you’re voting for a president, the person who is being put there is important. It’s a time that you look at the capabilities of the person,” Zibi said.
“I mean, John is struggling to debate — what’s he going to do at the Union Buildings and which mass of South African stakeholders that John has ever met is going to coalesce around him and his personal credibility?”
A new poll by Ipsos suggested that 35% of registered voters are uncertain who they will cast their vote for on 29 May. The poll placed Rise Mzansi in the “Others” category grouping together small political parties that are expected to get a collective 8% of the vote.
But Zibi said polls were not cause for panic, noting that in two previous polls by the Social Research Foundation, Rise Mzansi first landed in the “Others” but polled 4% as a single party in the second Gauteng poll. “When you mark these two data points together, it means the data is showing that Rise Mzansi is growing five fold compared to the last time,” he said.
He said that after the Social Research Foundation polls, the party had to improve its visibility by putting up posters across the country and increasing its public profile on social media platforms.
“There is a moment of change in South Africa happening now. I don’t think you’ve ever had 35% of the electorate undecided. And that’s a space, unfortunately, political research hasn’t got into,” Zibi said.
The ANC polled at just over 40% in the latest Ipsos survey, down from 40.5% in a similar poll released in
February and 43% in October. Ipsos said its poll had 1.9% margin of error with a 95% confidence level.
The DA polled at 21.9% compared with 20.5% in February, while the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) slid from 19.6% to 11.5%, largely as a result of the emergence of the umkhonto wesizwe party led by Jacob Zuma, which drew 8.4% support.
Zibi said the country would end up with a compromise in government.
“So in other words, we will choose as a country the less risky option and it’s important that people appreciate that,” he said. “We understand that we are in a phase where we are trying to reduce the risk to the country rather than go for gold, because the options on the table aren’t great.”
Zibi emphasised the role of donors as the architects of the Multi-party Charter, also known as the moonshot pact, spearheaded by the DA. He said he had been courted by donors to join the pact before Steenhuisen announced the idea at a DA congress in 2023.
“You cannot be part of something led by the DA, which is a centre right political party, and win a centre left population. Just conceptually, it means you have to move masses of people to the right wing. You are not going to do that. You either locate people where they are with the politics they respond to, or you move to the right,” Zibi said.
“So this cacophony of political parties is brought together. They don’t like each other very much. Herman [Mashaba, Actionsa leader] and John, I don’t have to tell you, they’re not the best of mates. And there are all of these disputes that pop up from time to time. We saw this coming and we decided it hinders our own project.
“We are just not going to be part of it [the Multi-party Charter]. And if it means we do not get the funding, then we’ll just have to try to make our way. And that’s the choice that we’ve taken,” Zibi said.
“But I think, as we can see right now, the moonshot is not moonshotting too well. Because every time they get on stage together, they fight about some other thing.”